This axis brings together 1 place of use of this verse in Muhammad Shahrur’s books, linking it to the concepts and arguments that appear around it.
The verse text as cited
۞ Your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him, and that you show excellence to parents. If one or both of them attain old age with you, do not say to them even “uff,” nor repel them, but speak to them a noble word. * And lower to them the wing of humility out of mercy, and say: My Lord, have mercy on them as they raised me when I was small. * Your Lord knows best what is within your souls. If you are righteous, then He has ever been Forgiving to those who turn back repeatedly. * And give the near of kin his due, and the needy, and the traveler, and do not squander wastefully. * Indeed, the wasteful are brothers of the devils, and Satan was ever ungrateful to his Lord. * And if you turn away from them, seeking mercy from your Lord that you hope for, then speak to them an easy word. * And do not make your hand chained to your neck, nor extend it fully, lest you sit blameworthy and regretful. * Indeed, your Lord extends provision for whom He wills and measures it. He is ever, of His servants, Fully Aware and Seeing. * And do not kill your children for fear of poverty; We provide for them and for you. Indeed, killing them is a great sin. * And do not approach adultery. Indeed, it is an abomination and an evil way. * And do not kill the soul which God has forbidden except by right. And whoever is killed unjustly, We have given his heir authority; so let him not exceed the bounds in killing. Indeed, he has been supported. * And do not approach the property of the orphan except in the best manner until he reaches maturity. And fulfill the covenant; indeed, the covenant will be questioned. * And give full measure when you measure, and weigh with the straight balance. That is better and best in outcome. * And do not pursue that of which you have no knowledge. Indeed, hearing, sight, and the heart—all of these will be questioned about. * And do not walk upon the earth exultantly. Indeed, you will neither tear open the earth nor reach the mountains in height. * All of that—its evil—is detested by your Lord. * That is from what your Lord has revealed to you of wisdom. And do not set up with God another deity, lest you be cast into Hell, blameworthy and rejected.
Brief reading
This passage is read as ethical injunctions revealed to the prophets, not as evidence for linking wisdom to the Messenger’s Sunna as in the tradition.
Axes
- Human and ethical
- Methodological
Related concepts
- Wisdom: 2
Its place in the conceptual network
It represents an axis for critiquing traditional constructions and reconnecting wisdom with ethics.
The verse’s role in the argument
- Critique of tradition: 1
Uses
- The Messengerly Sunna and the Prophetic Sunna, p. 48: He makes this entire passage the basis for refuting al-Shafi‘i’s linkage of wisdom with the Messenger’s Sunna, and reads it as a set of ethical injunctions revealed to the prophets.
- Concept: wisdom
- Function of the verse here: critique of tradition
- Textual evidence: “It seems that al-Shafi‘i, when he asserted that the Messenger’s Sunna in matters for which there is no text in the Book is wisdom, did not read Surat al-Isra’ as he should have, especially verses 23-39 of it.”
- Corresponding traditional reading: that wisdom here is the Messenger’s Sunna in matters for which there is no text in the Book.
Related books
- The Messengerly Sunna and the Prophetic Sunna
This page is presented within the general method of building the atlas.